The questions Neil Mitchell says must be answered after bridge monitoring bungle

The Victorian government poured $20 million into a failed bridge monitoring venture, and Neil Mitchell says Victorians deserve answers urgently.

In 2021, the Victorian government allocated $50 million for a joint venture between VicTrack and American giant Xerox, forming a new company — Eloque — to install untried new technology on bridges to monitor them for structural problems in real-time.

The company folded after 16 months, and Neil Mitchell broke the news that the peak industry body had warned the state government the project was not viable.

The Age today reports the devices are being removed from 30 bridges across the state.

Neil Mitchell says he’s got a question for the government — “Will you guarantee that our bridges are safe?”

“The government put monitoring devices on at least 30 bridges across Victoria. I believe they were particularly concerned at VicRoads about those on the Hume which carry heavy trucks loaded up with heavy gear for the West Gate Tunnel,” the 3AW Mornings host said.

“They put the monitoring devices there for a reason. I don’t know why — perhaps the bridges are old, perhaps they’re suspect, perhaps it’s just extra safety for heavy loads — but the monitoring devices they put there have been found to be unreliable, a bit shonky.

“I’m not saying the bridges are about to fall down but we need to know here. They monitored these bridges for a reason  — what was the reason?

“They’ve taken them out. What’s replaced them?”

Press PLAY below to hear Neil’s questions for the state government 

A VicTrack spokesperson says the FiBridge technology was trialled on bridges on Banksia St in Heidelberg and Tamboritha Road in Tamboritha, Hawkstowe Station rail bridge and the St Kilda Junction tram bridge.

“The technology will be progressively removed from these assets and re-used where possible for other purposes.

“The technology was designed to be an additional measure to monitor bridges remotely to reduce the cost of physical bridge inspections.”

State government poured $16m into venture it was warned would fail